6 Halloween costumes inspired by PR crises

If you’re looking for Halloween-costume inspiration, look no further than
PR calamities.

Crises such as a terrible marketing idea that evokes consumer backlash or a
data breach that affects millions of consumers are enough to give any
communicator a fright. Today, you can use that to your advantage and send
your PR co-workers fleeing in horror.

Consider donning one of these costumes, inspired by several of the year’s
top PR headaches:

1. Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner ad

Pepsi suffered widespread backlash for its marketing messages that depicted
Jenner handing a riot cop a can of the cola, to the cheers of protestors.

To add insult to injury, the ad debuted on the anniversary of the death of
Martin Luther King Jr.

Pepsi initially
defended the “global message of unity, peace and understanding” that it meant to
portray with its
advertisement featuring Kendall Jenner as a model who leaves a photo shoot and joins a
protest. The company
defended itself against widespread criticism from viewers who believed the ad trivialized
recent protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. Even
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., responded to the ad, saying, “If
only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”

Even though Pepsi pulled the ad, screenshots and copies of the video live
on—helping you to copy Jenner’s style:

Grab a friend to dress up as a police officer, and don’t forget the can of
Pepsi.

Feb. 26, 2017, marks one of the biggest flops in Oscars history, when
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the wrong movie as Best Picture.
It wasn’t Beatty or Dunaway’s faults, though, the error was caused by
PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan. He was working backstage
during the awards show and his only job was to make sure the right
envelopes got in the right hands -- and he was specifically warned to stay
offline so there would be no distractions.

Cullinan didn’t stay offline, however.

He handed Beatty the wrong envelope—a duplicate envelope from the previous
award for Best Actress—because he was tweeting a photo from backstage. As a
result, neither Cullinan nor his partner, Martha Ruiz, are allowed to
handle the Oscar envelopes again.

Whether you go as Cullinan or Ruiz, dress up in formal attire—topped off
with a “Best Picture” envelope, smartphone and sheepish facial expression.

The credit-reporting agency’s poor response to its crisis—which included
tweeting out a link to a phishing website instead of its resource for
consumers—
garnered additional backlash.

For a last-minute costume that gives a nod to the growing security crises
affecting PR teams, pair a green or black shirt with leggings of the same
color, attach several glow sticks and open locks and carry a sign
emblazoned with either Yahoo or Equifax.

You can also dress up as Rich Uncle Pennybags (the Monopoly Man) and
reference the prankster who stole the show at the Senate hearing for
Equifax’s chief executive, Richard Smith.

The government sought to get Shkreli locked up as a danger to the community
amid the fallout from his social media post, which read: “The Clinton
Foundation is willing to KILL to protect its secrets. So on HRC’s book
tour, try to grab a hair from her. I must confirm the sequences I have.
Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”

Though Shkreli’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, defended the “pharma bro’s”
actions, he conceded that “[Shkreli] says things that are stupid.”

To adapt the costume to a pre-prison look, include a smartphone and tweet
frantically throughout the day. Don’t forget
the characteristic smirk of someone who is utterly clueless about how reputation management works.

Though there’s
a right and wrong way to apologize after a crisis hits your organization, many statements get
slammed for being insincere and dismissive of blame. A bad apology can
intensify a crisis, too: Take the online firestorm United Airlines faced
after it dragged a passenger off a flight—and after
its chief executive gave a lackluster apology.

Take your pick of meager reactions to PR crises to hang from your neck for
this costume. Alternatively, you can dress as Taylor Swift from her music
video, “You Belong with Me”: